Grim times

Oh.My.Word.

All this is quite sick and horrible.

May Ms Lo Hwei Yen rest in peace. And condolences to her family and friends.

I am glad, though, that Fr Anthony reminded us to pray for perpetrators of violence too. I had almost forgotten them. After all, they are probably the ones most in need of prayers and healing.

Come to think of it, there are also the hundreds of other victims. And hundreds and hundreds others, if you think beyond Mumbai... such as in Kashmir, as mentioned by the gunmen... and the many, many broken lives and spirits out there...

Aiyoh...

This weekend's Gospel reading (Mark 13:33-37) is timely, I guess:
Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore -- for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning -- lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.

Young guns on the rampage

Well, well, so Djokovic finally finds himself back on top of things after an amazing slump. And it's amazing that he still has enough points to threaten Federer's No.2 spot. In fact, he will probably become No. 2 sometime next year. But that's where the plot will thicken. Because I think Murray is likely to eclipse him and even Nadal. If Djokovic had done better this year, he might have a brief taste of being No. 1 but seeing how fast and well Murray is improving, I doubt he will get the chance.

I'd have preferred to see Murray win the Masters Cup, of course, but never mind, lah. He has already done so well this year and people like Djokovic and Davydenko need the morale booster that they got from playing in the Masters final. I was glad, though, that Murray cut his hair recently (left). I cannot imagine him gunning for the No. 1 spot with his old hairstyle (right). Yes, yes, hair is a trivial matter when you are going for No. 1 but still...

It was good also to see Gilles Simon and young Del Potro coming into the mix too. I really like Simon's backhand. I have nothing against the older players but things are becoming more exciting with these new guys around.

So, there's just the Davis Cup final left now. It should still be interesting without Nadal. Ferrer will be there what, ha ha. I wonder if Nadal will go over to support Spain. Or if Ana will go over to support Verdasco, heh heh.

And I wonder where on the ladder Federer will find himself this time next year...

1% possible

It's time once again to write about trivial topics, ha ha.

I mentioned this K drama, 1% of Anything, sometime back. The title is grammatically odd but it is what the show is about - that even if there is a 1% possibility of something working out, there is that possibility of things turning out well in the end. I kind of like that storyline. It is a 2003 production, making it a contemporary of Stairway to Heaven and All In. Rom-coms weren't quite in yet at that time so it must have been quite a change from the usual fare then.

This show will appeal to die-hard romantics and anyone interested in watching the precursors for many later rom-com scenes. I recognised so many scenes here that were copied in shows like My Girl, Goong, etc. (For all I know, maybe this show copied those ideas from elsewhere.) The show also has practically all the elements you would expect in K drama - rich family versus poorer family, blind dates and match making, best friends, one girl and two suitors, love contracts, younger brother, grandfather... It even has some TVB ideas - cruel stepfather and kidnap!

Nevertheless, I did find it entertaining (though 26 episodes is way too long) because it had some quirky takes on those stock ideas. Like there is often a scene where the guy is pestered by another girl and the girlfriend happens to come by and overhears only part of the conversation and thus misunderstands everything, right? Well, here, the girlfriend happens to come by at the right time and thus sees and hears everything and so there is no misunderstanding. Then there is the time when the girl's dad spings a dating contract on the guy. Funny.

Also, it was nice for a change to have a guy who makes up his mind about the girl very fast, unlike many heroes who take about half the series or more to decide/realise that they like the girl.

And there was a nice soundtrack. I can still hear the song in my head. The last time that happened was when I watched Love Revolution. And I can still hear Ken Hirai...

The main girl, Kim Jung Hwa, is beautiful. The guy, Kang Dong Won, should have had a better haircut but his character was rather endearing.

Han Hye Jin, of Be Strong, Geum Soon and Jumong fame, is here as a secondary character, the best friend. These must have been her early days and I can see why she became a top choice for later dramas. Her acting overshadowed that of all the main characters.

My friend A says she has gone off K drama because she is tired of how everything is fake and made up. I do agree with her on this. Apart from Han Hye Jin, I would say the other people acted fairly competently in a textbook sort of way - they delivered their lines and played their characters in the most 'correct' way they could. Hence the 'fakeness'. And, of course, the cast is, as usual, telegenic and you suspect everyone has had some work done on their faces, teeth, etc.

So I was really glad when Ariel and Joe came back on TV in They Kiss Again. More on that another time!

Pictures from here

From kids to coffee prices

So after the so-called monk, I went back to chick lit and finished Rowan Coleman's The Accidental Mother pretty fast.

Nowadays, I'm not all that hopeful about chick lit but this book, about Sophie who ended up having to take care of her late best friend's young daughters, turned out to be quite a good departure from the usual formula. Except for the ending. But what to do, it's chick lit what. At least the plot was interesting and there were some strongly emotional and meaningful 'scenes' between Sophie and the girls. I was surprised to find such depth in chick lit.

And so now, I am reading Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist. Not my usual type of book but I was attracted by its cover and blurb, ha ha. This is a really good book. I am enjoying every page of it, which is much more than I can say for the Lim Chong Yah and another purple textbook (or was it orange?) we had for econs in the days of yore. With all due respect to Mr Lim and the purple textbook author and all other econs textbook writers, Tim Harford's book is engaging and funny, which are not the usual adjectives you would attach to econs books but being engaging and funny is certainly a way to make the subject interesting.

So if you've never smiled to yourself while reading about demand and supply, marginal cost, perfect competition and such, you may want to try this one. I'm not progressing too fast through the book, though. The subject matter is a bit hard for my currently slow-moving brain. This book may be engaging and funny but it still does require some thinking...

Life and death

Added on 7 Nov:
I realise that it wasn't the Archbishop but the media that made the church's stand public.
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So, our Archbishop has made public our stand on euthanasia. No doubt, this will open us up to some battering by other people's opinions. But never mind, lah, we are used to it.

I wonder if we will see some day soon another historic day in parliament when the party whip is lifted and MPs can vote according to their conscience (as they did in 1969? for the Abortion Bill)...

Don't say no one warned us about the slippery slope from abortion to euthanasia...

It's a debate on the same continuum (or slope), isn't it?